Read the original interview in Prensa Libre (Guatemala)

The Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, arrived in Guatemala on 4 August, marking the start of a pastoral journey through Central America that would run until 22 August, taking in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa in Honduras, and San Salvador in El Salvador.

During his stay, through the coordination and support of a local Opus Dei team, he agreed to answer this written interview about his visit to the country and his outlook on today's challenges.

This is your first visit to Guatemala as Prelate of Opus Dei. What does this trip mean to you, and what are you hoping for from these days spent meeting so many people?

It is a great joy to come and meet so many people: to listen, to learn, to pray alongside them, and to thank God for all the good He is bringing about in this country. I always say that on these trips I receive far more than I could ever give. My hope is that these days will help all of us renew our hope, grow in friendship with Jesus Christ, and discover that each of us, wherever we find ourselves, can help — as Pope Leo XIV reminds us — to make society more humane and closer to God.

Opus Dei forms part of the Catholic Church. How does it work alongside bishops, dioceses, and the Church's other institutions, orders and movements? What does Opus Dei bring to the life of the Church?

Within the great family of the Church, Opus Dei offers its own message and charism: helping people of every kind to meet God in their everyday lives — at work, in the street, within the family, in life's joys and, equally, in its hardships — and to play their own part there, in the Church's mission of evangelisation. That is how Opus Dei exists to serve the Church. It lies at the very heart of our spirit, and St. Josemaría taught it in countless ways: unity with the Pope, with the bishops, with our fellow Catholics. This is a fundamental good, and through it, with God's grace, we can sow unity in a divided and fractured world, carrying Christ's light and love wherever it is most needed: into classrooms, towns, fields, hospitals, offices and families, to rich and poor alike… to everyone.

The Church in Latin America is living through a time of real challenges, but also great opportunities. What should take priority in proclaiming the Gospel on a continent that has been called the continent of hope?

Latin America lives its faith through a popular piety that is an inspiration to the whole world. At the same time, as elsewhere, we are living through a change of era that calls for a great deal of formation, tailored to each person's circumstances. So the difficulties facing the work of evangelisation should never lead to discouragement. Quite the opposite: they should spur us to pray more, and to draw closer to people and serve them more generously, helping them towards an encounter with Christ.

Only a few months ago, we marked fifty years since St. Josemaría's journey through Latin America, which ended in Guatemala. Meeting with people from these countries, he remarked: "I look at you, and I am left with hope." The Work, a small part of the Church, began in the Americas with just a handful of people, and now numbers in the thousands. That hope is destined to spread across the world, carried by joy. "Rejoicing in hope," as St. Paul says (Rom 12:12) — and it is no illusory hope, for he goes on: "rejoicing in hope, patient under trial, persevering in prayer." And in Latin America you have exactly that joy, that strength and that piety, capable of carrying hope to the rest of the world.

In his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV calls on Christians to foster a culture of peace and to rediscover the dignity of every person. What do you see as important for Central America at this particular moment?

Pope Leo invites us to place the good of the person at the centre of social and economic life. Respect for human dignity is the path to peace. As I was reflecting just these past few days at the Universidad del Istmo, each of us can ask what it means, in our own life, to hold that the person matters more than technology, more than money, more than any structure. There is much talk nowadays of post-humanism and transhumanism. The Church proposes a genuine humanism instead, one that places the dignity of the person at its centre, because every human being is called to be a child of God in Christ.

The Pope draws attention to technology's and artificial intelligence's remarkable advances, even as we face poverty, migration, violence and polarisation. How can Christians help build a more united and more hopeful society?

St. Josemaría opened up a magnificent horizon for Christians: to place Christ's love at the summit of human activity. Each person, through their work, their studies, their social and civic engagement — working alongside others who share the same concerns, whether or not they are Christian — is called to seek out answers to the challenges of our age, sowing Christian peace, dignity, justice and charity. This is the parable of the talents: we have all been given talents to put to work in the service of others, steering innovation by the compass of ethics, facing thorny problems in the light of the Gospel, bringing both professional expertise and a gaze of faith.

Opus Dei is approaching the centenary of its founding, to be celebrated between two dates: 2 October 2028 and 14 February 2030. What does this anniversary mean for the institution, and what fruit do you hope it bears for the Church and society in Central America?

The centenary invites us to look back on the past with gratitude, and with a readiness to examine ourselves, so as to see how we might serve the Church and society still more effectively. We are conscious of having received a grace from God, one meant to be shared. We don't want this anniversary to be a matter of organisation or institutions alone: it is a call to every person in Opus Dei, and to the many cooperators and friends who walk alongside us, to attune ourselves more faithfully to the light St. Josemaría received on that 2 October 1928, and to offer that same light to others; the light of faith, charity, service, and peace. St. Josemaría urged us to spread an appreciation for service in a society that has so often lost sight of its worth. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel: "I have come to serve."

In Central America, as everywhere, I would encourage those who take part in our apostolic and formational activities to ask themselves the question we are asking ourselves: how can I renew my own spirit of service? How can I serve better where I am, in my neighbourhood, my family, and at work?

In a message sent on 19 March this year, you noted that the immediate preparation for the centenary was beginning. How would you like Opus Dei to arrive at that anniversary?

I would like all of us to rekindle God's gift within us. As I wrote in that message, St. Paul's words to Timothy are deeply illuminating: "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you." We do this by being grateful, by drawing closer to the Pope, and by wanting all the more to serve; becoming sowers of peace and joy wherever our lives take us.

At this historic moment, St. Josemaría's phrase, "everything has been done, and everything remains to be done," has been quoted frequently. Given that Opus Dei is a living body, how do you hold fidelity and change together?

In the life of the Church, everything has indeed been done, because Jesus Christ has redeemed us, and his infinite grace — his Word and his sacraments — stands ready for us. And yet that redemption is worked out in the life and the decisions of each individual person, and in that sense, everything remains to be done.

In the Work we can now look back on a hundred years of history; a great deal has been accomplished, and our spirit has been blessed by the Church and taken flesh in thousands of lives: in that sense, everything is done, as far as the spirituality and the essential means of living it are concerned. But the horizon of evangelisation is a shoreless sea: everything remains to be done. On the Pope's recent journey to Spain, the chosen motto was, "Lift up your eyes." That is how we Christians want to look upon the world, with the eyes of Jesus: as a vast field, full of wheat but also of weeds, where we can be instruments in God's hands, helping Him to sow and reap good works of faith, service, freedom, justice, and social advancement.

One of St. Josemaría's central messages was that work can be a place of encounter with God and of service to others. What does that vision offer a world in which so many people feel the weight of meaningless work, unjust conditions, or no work at all?

St. Josemaría wanted work to be the hinge on which the Christian life of the faithful of Opus Dei turns. He understood work in the broadest sense, not merely as employment: it included raising children, running a household, bearing up under illness, and even the work of looking for work when one is unemployed.

The vast world of work, where we spend so many hours and which so often shapes who we are, is a place of encounter with God, and, from that encounter, an opportunity to serve others, to grow as a person, and a foothold from which to contribute to solving society's problems. Poverty, war, the lack of education and healthcare... These challenges can be tackled through social engagement, NGOs, and the Church's own institutions. But we can also think of meeting those great challenges through our daily work. Every kind of work can contribute to justice and charity; and those with the greatest opportunities also carry the greatest responsibility.

In 2023, Guatemala received the news that Dr. Ernesto Cofiño, a member of Opus Dei, had been recognised by the Holy See as someone who lived the Christian virtues heroically, earning him the title of Venerable, a step on the path towards sainthood. What does this recognition mean?

Above all, it is an invitation to see holiness as a real possibility for anyone. Ernesto Cofiño was not known for doing extraordinary things, but for doing ordinary things extraordinarily well: his family, his profession, his friendships, his service to those most in need, and his relationship with God.

For Guatemala, it is a source of hope, for it shows that this country has given the Church and the world such a shining example of Christian life. For Opus Dei, too, it is a joy, because it confirms once again that the spirit of sanctifying work and family life can bear fruit for the good of society as a whole.

Ernesto Cofiño was an exemplary doctor, husband, father and engaged citizen. Which aspects of his life do you think still speak to today's professionals and families?

What strikes me most is the coherence of his life. His faith was never reserved for certain moments, nor was his profession ever set apart from his Christian convictions. Everything was of a piece: he was a good doctor because he loved people; he was a good husband and father because he knew that love shows itself in small details; he was an engaged citizen because he saw in every person a child of God.

In a society that sometimes seems to demand we split our lives into separate compartments, Ernesto reminds us that coherence, joy and service remain every bit as relevant today.

We live in a culture that often separates faith from professional life. It's striking that a doctor as busy as Dr. Cofiño found time to go to Mass or pray every day. How can someone with so many responsibilities and professional demands still make room to contemplate and draw close to God?

It isn't a matter of doing extraordinary things, but of discovering that God is waiting for us in the midst of our daily occupations. St. Josemaría spoke of finding "something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations." When someone strives to work well, to serve others, to offer up their efforts, and sets aside a little time each day for prayer, they gradually discover that their relationship with God doesn't compete with their responsibilities; it gives them a deeper meaning. That is how Ernesto Cofiño lived. Prayer didn't take time away from love; it taught him to love better.

What message would you like to leave with the people of Guatemala, and especially with the faithful and friends of Opus Dei across Central America?

I would simply like to thank them for the warmth of their welcome, and above all, for the example of faith I have so often seen reflected in the people of these lands.

To all Guatemalans, I would say: never lose hope. Our world needs people who can build bridges, who know how to forgive, who work with integrity and sow peace in everyday life. That is a path open to everyone.